WAPOR 75th Annual Conference 2022
Andrew Cleary, Director of International Research Methods, is presenting research learnings at the 75th Annual WAPOR Conference. The research outlines how the face-to-face European Working Conditions Survey was developed as telephone survey in response to the pandemic, comparing data quality with the previous survey and drawing key lessons for future research methods.
Transitioning the European Working Conditions Survey to telephone in response to the pandemic
The European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) has been conducted by Eurofound every five years since 1990, providing information to policymakers on the working conditions and job quality of European workers. Each previous survey had been based on face-to-face interviewer data collection. The time series was interrupted in 2020 when the 7th edition, commissioned to Ipsos, was brought to a stop by lockdown and the cessation of in-person interviewing across Europe. In order to carry out the survey Eurofound and Ipsos re-developed it as a telephone survey, with fieldwork taking place in 2021.
The research covers some of the main challenges presented by the transition, including:
- Consideration of the main risks to the time series
- Limitations on the length of a telephone interview and approach taken to modularisation of the questionnaire
- Comparisons of coverage and/or non-response bias between the telephone and previous face-to-face survey
More insights about Public Sector
